Since before President Trump took office, the Democratic base has been in a state of perpetual frenzy. And as next Tuesday’s midterm congressional elections have drawn nearer, the Left’s fervor has grown ever more radical and vociferous. Perhaps that was to be expected, but what was less easily predicted is that many leading figures in this crusade to elect Democrats call themselves conservatives.
There can be reasonable debate over whether a conservative ought to vote for Trump, either in 2016 or in 2020. There are also a few places were there is a decent case to be made that conservatives should not support Republican candidates. But if anyone tells you that conservatives should want Democrats to control Congress, that person is either deluded or a con artist.
No one who cares about liberty or who is in any way socially conservative should want Chuck Schumer running the Senate or Nancy Pelosi again running the House. No conservative in their heart of hearts really believes the country needs to keep Sens. Claire McCaskill, Heidi Heitkamp, and their ilk in the upper chamber. Only an enthusiast for the leftist big government, censorship, activist judges, subsidized abortion on demand, state-directed corporatism, and radical, government-imposed social transformation would desire the elevation of Beto O’Rourke and Kyrsten Sinema.
[Also read: Democrats are desperate for a job-killing, cost-increasing carbon tax — they just won’t tell you]
Most importantly, conservatives need a Republican Senate to confirm jurists to the federal courts who are committed to interpreting the law rather than inventing it. If Democrats control the upper chamber they will refuse to confirm anyone Trump nominates to the Supreme Court. They would also block almost all Trump nominees to federal appellate courts. The president may not even be allowed to fill vacancies on the lower federal courts.
The single biggest and worst consequence of a Democratic takeover of the Senate would be to keep conservative, texualist judges off the court.
Whether or not you think Trump is worth it, the single best thing about his presidency from a conservative perspective has been his judicial appointments. Electing a Democratic Senate in 2018 leaves you with Trump in the White House and vacancies on the bench to be filled by Democrats some time hence. How is that better?
If you fear that Trump has authoritarian designs and believe he disregards the Constitution, shouldn’t you want more texualist judges, such as Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neomi Rao, and Kyle Duncan?
Rooting for a Democratic Senate is to root for a liberal-controlled Supreme Court. Rooting for a Democratic Senate is to root for Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores to have gone the other way, which was what McCaskill wanted. That’s an America where you sacrifice your free exercise of religion the moment you enter the marketplace.
If pro-Democrat “conservatives” get their way on Election Day, the new masters in Congress would prevent any conservative nominee, taking us one step closer to a court striking down the right to bear arms, the right to spend money criticizing politicians at election time, freedom of association, and freedom from compelled speech.
The Election Day ballot includes the names of specific senators and Senate candidates. In almost all cases, the Democrats anathematize what real conservatives value. In Arizona, Sinema opposed lowering taxes because she liked the way high rates and special deductions steer money in a “pro-business” direction to her lobbyist donors.
Montana incumbent Sen. Jon Tester has turned his office into a fulcrum of corruption’s revolving door. North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp got to Washington and flip-flopped on late-term abortion, siding with Schumer against protecting babies in the sixth month of pregnancy and later. Sens. Bill Nelson and Joe Manchin championed the “no-fly, no-buy” bill stripping gun rights from people with no due process.
And can any conservative really justify hoping for Beto O’Rourke to take a seat in the Senate?
The “Never Trump” argument for electing Democrats is that Republicans haven’t resisted Trump enough. There’s some truth to that, but also some lie. Republicans in Congress stood up to Trump on Russia sanctions. They helped shoot down his most unqualified nominees. They stopped him from firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
They’ve demurred from criticizing every intemperate and incontinent tweet from the president. But denouncing them is not really a senator’s job. Their main job has been cutting taxes and confirming conservatives to the Supreme Court.
Keeping the House Republican is a whole lot tougher, but conservatives should also want that, which would enable the GOP to make tax cuts permanent.
Preserving GOP control of Capitol Hill is more valuable than issuing a symbolic Election Day rebuke to Trump or initiating a thousand partisan investigations.
We understand conservatives who are exasperated with Trump. Some of us didn’t vote for him. Some of us won’t in 2020. But a vote for a Republican Senate isn’t a vote for Trump. It’s a vote to protect liberty and the Constitution.
[More: Speaker Paul Ryan: Vote Republican, keep America prosperous]
